The word ‘consultation’ is one of the most over-used in the current vernacular - everything from small parking changes to major schemes that no-one can influence have to be consulted upon - but when it doesn’t happen at all, it is even more infuriating.

To-whit! To-who! Who has not heard this ‘merry note’ on a dark winter’s night, perhaps echoing across a woodland or park, and wondered at its source? Of course, we know it’s an owl but have we ever seen one, I wonder, other than in children’s story books such as AA Milne’s Wol or Beatrix Potter’s Old Brown? Perhaps, a bit like the cuckoo in spring, we are familiar with the tawny owl’s “To-whit! To-who!” call but not with the actual bird.